The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival 2025, with the theme “Root & Remedy: Prescriptions for an Uncertain World,” will be held in Brooklyn, USA, from September 5 – 7, 2025.
The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival is a celebration of culture as expressed through the pen of the storyteller and the voice of the poet. Founded by Marsha Massiah-Aaron in 2019, it is designed to facilitate vibrant conversations about Caribbean identity via a series of readings of classic and contemporary stories, podcasts, and conversations in Brooklyn, New York, USA. One of its highlights is the announcement of the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival literary awards since the first edition in 2021.
The 2025 edition returns to the New York borough from Friday, September 5, with the theme “Root & Remedy: Prescriptions for an Uncertain World.” It is transforming into a Caribbean literary botánica, inviting readers, writers, and seekers into a space where every panel is a ritual offering and every story a potent medicine.
The featured guests are Rawlston Charles, Erphaan Alves, Danielle Brown, Cleyvis Natera, Lauren Francis-Sharma, Kei Miller, Jason Allen-Paisant, Lauren K. Alleyne, Cheryl Boyce-Taylor, Roberto Carlos Garcia, Derron Sandy, Rosamond King, Ras Atiba, Nadia Alexis, Justin Haynes, Ryan Bachoo, Andie Davis, Donna Hemans, Aleya Fraser, Kaitlyn Greenidge, Kevin Browne, Malene Barnett, and Carlos Andrés Gómez.
The guests will participate in panels titled, WHAT WE SING WHEN WE ARE FAR FROM HOME: Transnational Identities, Sound and the Sacred; THE ISLAND ISN’T SILENT: Sound, Survival, and the Sacred – A Literary Botánica Conversation; LAUREATES OF THE CARIBBEAN; GONE FOREIGN – Desire, Departure, and the Danger of Return; ROOT, VOICE, MEMORY: On Plants, Mothers, and Making Ourselves Whole; THE ALTAR OF MEMORY: A Sense of Arrival with Kevin Browne, Lauren K. Alleyne, and Malene Barnett; and TIL LATER: A FAREWELL TOAST & STORY CELEBRATION. The novel The Grand Paloma Resort by Cleyvis Natera will also be launched.
The festival is sponsored by Hawthornden Foundation, NYU, Brooklyn Arts Council, TSZ Limited, Story Shyft, Island Pops, and Poets & Writers. There will also be the participation of The Center for Fiction, Furious Flower Poetry Center, Greenlight Bookstore, Akashic Books, and the Brooklyn Museum, as well as Festival Patrons @phoebe.b88, Lauren F. Sharma, and Shanon Fable.
For more information, we recommend the official festival website.
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